WEBVTT

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So I got my first AM FM radio when I was maybe

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five years old Just a little thing man You toss

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a couple batteries in the back or plug it into

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the wall and that was it the whole world Came

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out of that that little speaker. I grew up in

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Tampa in the early 90s WFL Z WRB Q W XT B actually

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I got some of their stickers on the wall here.

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No WRB Q FLZ XDB on the Iraq I'd sit there Scan

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all over the dial. There was always there was

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always somebody on somebody live somebody local

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late at night, you'd find The the usual players

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Art Bell talking about whatever was on You know,

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whatever was out there past the edge of the map

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if you will And it didn't matter what it was

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because the point was that a real person was

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awake and on the air and you could hear him obviously

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there wasn't cell phones or the internet or computers

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really but you know especially in the early mid

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90s I've thought about that little radio I got

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way back then I've thought about it a lot this

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week This is the Tyler Woodward Project, and

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before I get any further, the usual spiel, this

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is all me. My opinions, my point of view, nobody

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else's. Today, yes, I'm talking about iHeartMedia,

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the layoffs that started this week, and the thing

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that really I've been trying not to say out loud

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for a while now. Here's what actually happened,

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if you haven't heard yet. Starting Monday this

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week, iHeart began cutting on -air and programming

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staff across the country. By Thursday, it was

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into the third day. And it's still going. Radio

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Insight, which has covered this stuff for years

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at this point, called it the biggest purge in

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the History of the industry That is their phrasing

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not mine And they don't you know, I don't think

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they throw that around lightly The number I heart

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will admit is it's in the dozens Well, the reporting

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on the ground says it's a lot more than a dozen

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or a few dozen Whole markets lost everybody I'm

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talking about like, you know Atlantic City Cedar

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Rapids Erie for Colin Springfield, Missouri Spokane

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not trimmed. I mean completely cleared out every

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remaining local voice gone in a couple days Hell

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there's a guy in Springfield Clint Gerlich 19

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years with the company He said something that

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is stuck with me. He said he was the only person

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who programs the radio in Springfield So there's

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nobody else there One person was the local radio

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in that town and now that person is gone Brett

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Saunders and Denver 28 years at KBCO Done. A

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morning show in Fort Myers that ran almost 25

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years, terminated. Mike Kelly at B -104 in, uh,

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what is it, Lehigh Valley? You know, on that

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station since 1993. These are the people who

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were the reason you turned it on. In the memo,

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you have to hear how they framed it. The two

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executives who sent it... said the goal is to

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quote move faster and operate with greater precision

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across markets unquote. Yeah, they said faster

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is better. They said they have built new tech

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capabilities over the last several years, and

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now they are going to scale them. And then. And

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this is the part that actually made me put my

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head in my hands. The memo promises that guaranteed

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human stays at the core of everything they do

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Yeah guaranteed human in the same memo where

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they are firing the humans So let me tell you

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where I where I sit on this because I'm not just

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yelling from the outside I'm a broadcast engineer.

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I got my foot in the door back in 2014, finally.

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I work in this every day and I feel it, man.

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Even where I am, things are tighter than they

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used to be. There's a sort of caution to everything

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now. A quiet thing where you don't dare rock

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the boat. You don't try the Weird idea you keep

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it running and you keep your head down. I Mean

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it's not as bad everywhere as it is at the big

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consolidators Public radio is a different animal

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and I'm Grateful for that. But the I mean the

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air pressure is the same everywhere Everyone

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can feel which direction things are going So,

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I mean, why is it like this? Why did he get this

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way? Well, you can put a date on it. 1996. The

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Telecommunications Act. Before that, there were

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real limits on how many stations one company

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could own. After that, the cap basically came

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off. And the dial gap bought up Clear Channel,

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which is the company that later became iHeart,

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went from a few dozen stations to over a thousand.

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A group of private equity firms took over Clear

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Channel. I mean, they took it private in 2006

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for almost 19 billion dollars. That deal went

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bad, and the company filed for bankruptcy in

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2018. People talk about private equity and housing

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right now. Like it's this new horror show. Wall

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Street buying up neighborhoods, stripping them,

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renting them back out to you. And I mean, that's

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bad, but radio got there first. Radio has been

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the test run. for that whole playbook for, I

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don't know, some 20 -some odd years. Buy the

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thing, load it with debt, strip out the expensive

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parts, which in radio means to people, and run

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whatever's left on it on autopilot. And then

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a couple of months ago, back in April, the scare,

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I mean, all of this is kind of a scare but this

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one was really a little uh made you think for

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a moment you know bloomberg reported i heart

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and serious xm were in talks the merge yeah the

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biggest terrestrial radio company and the biggest

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well really only satellite company possibly becoming

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one entity now Luckily, those talks stalled out

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by the end of May, but I mean, think about what

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that could have been. One company owning the

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AM dial, the FM dial and the satellite dial.

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Imagine what that does to the people who actually

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make radio, not the shareholders. I mean, the

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shareholders, they would have been thrilled.

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to everyone who ever mattered on air and not

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so much. Now, the one thing I've been trying

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not to say out loud, I feel like I'm starting

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to lose my love for this. And I hate that. I

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genuinely hate saying that. I grew up really

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only ever wanting to do one thing. This was it,

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radio. Not TV, but radio. And there's a feeling

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I get more days, you know, than I really want

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to admit, especially lately, where I look at

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it honestly, and I think things might not be

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coming back. Not the way it was at least do you

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want to know? What really makes this feel worse?

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Watch What's actually working right now? podcasting

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YouTube it's small creators one person with a

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mic and you know in the an opinion and Nobody's

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permission to do it That is the thing that's

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catching fire right now. That is the thing people

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are choosing a live or at the very least a personal

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voice that is clearly a human a human being who

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I Guess actually cares which is you know Exactly

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the thing radio used to be The exact thing And

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the industry is sitting on the largest distribution

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network for live human voices ever built. And

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it's laying those voices off to hit a $50 million

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savings number while writing guaranteed human

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in a memo. I mean, give me a break. We're paralyzed.

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We are watching the answer go viral. on another

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medium, another platform. And we as an industry

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can't make ourselves do it. I think about, you

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know, back when I was five years old with that

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little battery powered radio. The thing that

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that blew my mind back then wasn't the signal

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or how it all worked it was that someone was

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there you could plug in this device and hear

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somebody local in your town which felt way bigger

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than it was and then listening to the night guys

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like Art Bell I mean how many stations was he

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on I mean it was someone there someone was awake

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and on the air local real You can automate a

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lot. You can not automate someone being there,

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a real human being. And this week, a few hundred

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people who were there get told, we don't need

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you anymore. You know, I sometimes think I should

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have been born like 10 years earlier. I missed

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the peak. of this thing I, you know, I've been

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given my life to. At least that's what I feel

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like. Maybe. I don't know. Or maybe the peak

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wasn't a year. Maybe it was just part of where

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a real person was on the other end. And, you

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know, that part isn't gone, I guess. It just

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moved. I'm not ready to say it's dead, but...

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I'm not going to stand here and pretend it's

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fine either because it's definitely not. They

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got a whole lot smaller this week and somebody

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is making some money doing it. Subscribe to me.

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I am an independent creator. I may work in the

00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:17.409
industry, but I still love talking about the

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industry. My name is Tyler. And this is The Tyler

00:14:20.730 --> 00:14:22.710
Woodward Project. You can subscribe on Apple

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Podcasts, Spotify, and make sure you rate and

00:14:27.470 --> 00:14:29.629
review the show. Follow me over on Facebook and

00:14:29.629 --> 00:14:31.929
YouTube at The Tyler Woodward Project. Instagram,

00:14:32.350 --> 00:14:34.629
threads, and blue sky. I'm over there at tylerwoodward

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.me. Reach out, say hello. Maybe you're one of

00:14:39.129 --> 00:14:43.090
those few that got told that you're no longer

00:14:43.090 --> 00:14:49.259
needed this week. I feel for you. I put a newsletter

00:14:49.259 --> 00:14:52.879
up on the new website too if you hear the join

00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.580
that going back to the original name that I called

00:14:55.580 --> 00:14:59.440
this podcast, Fully Modulated. You can subscribe

00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:02.679
to the Fully Modulated newsletter at tylerwoodward

00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:06.940
.me forward slash newsletter. That's going to

00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:10.460
do it for me. I just wanted to come on here and

00:15:10.460 --> 00:15:12.679
commiserate with you guys a little bit because

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it's not good news. All right. That's going to

00:15:18.899 --> 00:15:19.679
do it for me for now.